Murdered Alma Barragán, third candidate of the Citizen Movement who falls to bullets in less than 15 days

Alma Barragán, candidate of the Citizen Movement for mayor of Moroleón, at a rally.RS

An electoral candidate was shot to death this afternoon in Moroleón (Guanajuato) when she was participating in campaign events. Alma Barragán was the candidate for the presidency of that town by Movimiento Ciudadano, a party that mourns the death of its third politician in less than two weeks. On May 14, the bullets killed Abel Murrieta in Cajeme (Sonora), also at an election date. And a candidate for trustee for Landa de Matamoros (Querétaro), Arturo Flores Bautista, was found dead last Sunday. In the latter case, the alleged murderer was Emmanuel Trejo, brother of the candidate for the municipal presidency of the PRI demarcation, Jonathan Trejo Ramírez. The three politicians assassinated in May are therefore from the same party. The national coordinator of training, Clemente Castañeda Hoeflich,He has condemned the crime against Barragán on social networks and sent his condolences to the family. In addition, he has requested the clarification of what happened and the conviction of the guilty, something difficult in Mexico, where high levels of impunity almost prevent talking about justice.

More information

• A candidate shot in Oaxaca joins the list of murdered politicians

The attack on the candidate by armed men has injured two more people.

Before that happened, Barragán had left a video in which she communicated her whereabouts and invited the local residents to accompany her: “Hello, how are you?

I am here in La Manguita with Pedro Guzmán.

If you like to accompany me, come and listen to my proposals, to live together for a moment.

Thank you very much, I am waiting for you here ”.

There will be no more campaign proposals for this candidate.

The murderers arrived there with their pistols.

Mexico is approaching one of the largest elections of its contemporary time, where around 20,000 positions, 15 governors and the deputies of the Chamber of Deputies and local congresses will be elected. But the violence is being very pronounced, to the point of limiting the democracy in which these processes must unfold. Rare is the week when there is no need to mourn a death, and threats and attacks occur every day, not only against candidates, but also against their collaborators and family members.

The violence already equals this call with that of 2018 and more than 230 candidates have requested protection. It is not easy for them, since to guarantee it they must inform the prosecution offices of the location of their electoral acts and not everyone feels safe when trusting this information. While waiting for the latest monthly data to come out, it can already be said that the fatalities will approach, if they do not exceed, 80 among aspiring politicians and candidates, and attacks of all kinds are around 500, a 64% more than in the same period in 2018. It is the second most violent campaign since 2000.

The attacks include threats, such as those by Morena's candidate in Metepec, Gabriela Gamboa, against the daughter of her rival for mayor of Metepec, in the State of Mexico. “You know what I can do with the girl, right? Remind him you bastard, do you want punches? They have them dude! ”, Is heard in a recording. The candidate of Va por México, Fernando Flores, has held her responsible for anything that may happen to her family or her team.

The threats are not bravado in Mexico, because death makes its presence easily when there were warnings before.

In Valle de Bravo, the candidate for municipal president of the Va por México coalition, Zudikey Rodríguez, recently received a warning to take into account: stand aside or we will separate you.

And he has left the campaign, at least he does not make an appearance.

The silence around this matter is now the protagonist.

Kidnappings are also common at election time.

The aforementioned trustee candidate, Arturo Flores Bautista, was kidnapped a few days earlier.

And the newspaper

El Universal

reports this Tuesday

that the candidate of the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico Omar Plancarte, in Uruapan, was put into a car by force this morning when he was leaving one of his properties in the municipality of Villa Jiménez. His whereabouts are unknown. Uruapan (Michoacán), is a complicated square because it is one of the most violent cities in Mexico.

The data collected each month by the consulting firm Etellekt also reports that these elections have already claimed the lives of 28 relatives of politicians, with closed figures for April, which in all probability will be increased when reviewing May. The municipal candidates are the favorite target of the criminals, who seek to twist the pulse of the sovereignty of the people by deciding with bullets who can or cannot rise to the presidency of each town. Contrary to what is always said, not everything is attributable to drug trafficking, as Rubén Salazar, president of Etellekt, has told on several occasions. There are many economic and power interests at stake in these towns, in which the chiefdom does not want to give up its predominant position. So it is,that the highest number of murders are concentrated among those candidates who aspire to unseat the ruling party.

Threats, kidnappings, deaths.

The bullets are silencing many voices in this campaign.

And with them, democracy in Mexico is weakened every day.

The project launched by the Government for the protection of the candidates seems of little use.

Citizens accept with resignation that before the polls open on June 6, other politicians will already be underground.

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